Astrometric Moments
by spritznar
Summary: just a few oneshot interactions between Tal Celes and Seven of Nine working together in Astrometrics
1. Designation

~t

Disclaimer: Voyager and crew are not mine

~~t~~

Tal Celes was very uncomfortable.

She was sitting on the floor in the dimly lit Astrometrics lab 20 minutes after her shift should have ended, but that wasn't why she was uncomfortable.

~~t~~

About a half an hour ago _Voyager_ was ambushed by an alien ship whose territory they had apparently wandered into. They took considerable damage before the Captain determined negotiating to be futile and fired back. The ensuing fight was short but vicious, leaving both ships drifting and the crew of _Voyager _scrambling to get the engines online and make their getaway before the alien vessel repaired their own engines or weapons systems.

Usually Seven of Nine, the head of Astrometrics would have been on the bridge for the battle, but the first surprise volley had apparently damaged some vital systems and the doors to Astrometrics refused to open. The former Borg wasn't unduly concerned and simply continued working from Astrometrics, sending pertinent information to the bridge. That is, until the battle ended and Lieutenant Torres decided the top of the line Astrometrics screens were sucking up power that was needed elsewhere and rerouted sensors directly to the bridge.

An irritated Seven had hailed the Engineering Chief and been told in no uncertain terms to sit tight, shut up and stop calling till the engines were up and running. An inquiry to the computers had revealed transporters to be offline as well. Leaving Tal and Seven trapped in the dim Astrometrics lab with nothing to focus on but blank screens, grey walls and each other.

And Tal Celes was very uncomfortable, because Seven on Nine, former Borg, efficiency expert and obsessive workaholic who spent every waking hour _doing_ something, had turned her formidable attention to focus entirely on Tal.

~~t~~

Tal twiddled her thumbs nervously, trying not to see Seven who stood ten feet away head cocked, hands behind her back, intently dissecting the Bajorian with her gaze. Just when she thought she couldn't take it anymore the former Borg spoke.

"Is your family name Celes or Tal?"

Tal jumped at the sudden interruption of the silence.

"B-beg pardon?" she stammered.

Of all the possible things Seven might have been contemplating, that was the last one Tal would have guessed, ever.

"In the crew manifest you are listed as Tal Celes, which in the Bajorian tradition would indicate Tal is your family name. However," Seven continued, "the crew address you as Crewman Celes, which contradicts the previous conclusion."

"Oh," Tal looked up to meet Seven's gave, smiling nervously, "Celes is my family name, I switched the order when I joined Starfleet. It was easier than having to explain it everytime I met someone who wasn't familiar with Bajorian customs."

Seven furrowed her brows in confusion.

"You changed your name to accommodate hypothetical people you had never met?"

Tal shrugged, "I guess so, but more to save myself the trouble of explaining."

Seven's brow smoothed and her implant quirked up slightly, "And now you must explain your name to someone because they are familiar with Bajorian naming customs."

Tal smiled, "I guess so."

There was another bout of silence, but this time Tal watched Seven study her.

"When I came aboard _Voyager_, Captain Janeway wanted me to revert to my human designation. I refused."

Tal was a little surprised; she hadn't really thought about the fact that Seven had a human name, Seven was just… Seven. She was still so intimidating and Borg, even after they removed all the armor and exoplating. Now that Seven had mentioned it though she was suddenly curious.

"What was it?" She asked shyly, "Your birth name, I mean."

Seven paused and for a moment Tal was sure she wasn't going to answer.

"Annika Hansen."

Tal blinked, "Annika."

She opened her mouth to say something more but she wasn't sure what and never found out because the engineering team outside chose that moment to get the doors open. Both women turned towards the distracting 'Swoosh' that broke the moment and propelled Seven into action. The former Borg was out the doors and off to the bridge or engineering or someplace equally important to offer assistance and be productive, leaving Tal sitting on the floor in Astrometrics.

"Annika…" She said again, as though tasting the word, "it's just so…"

Tal wasn't really sure what it was; soft, human… un-Borg.

"Huh."

~~t~~


	2. Puss in Boots

~t

Disclaimer: not mine

Warning: mild crackfic leanings

~~t~~

"This is sickbay, not a zoo!"

The harried holographic Doctor barely looked up from examining his current patient as he complained to a thoroughly unsympathetic Captain. The doors swished open and Tuvok entered, escorting two more, this time a tortoise (or was it a turtle?) and an attentive German Shepherd. The Captain pinched the bridge of her nose in a futile attempt to relieve the impending migraine.

~~t~~

Not 20 minutes ago _Voyager_ had been completely peaceful, orbiting an M class planet while away teams gathered supplies. Then suddenly a beam of some unidentified radiation had shot through the ship, penetrating their shields like tissue paper. Nothing appeared to be damaged, but very shortly the crew began reporting animal sightings across the ship, alpha quadrant animals no less.

Security was dispatched to round them up and bring them to sickbay for examination. The Doctor had barely opened his medical tricorder over the first patient (a twitchy spotted rabbit) before he flickered in holographic astonishment.

"This is Ensign Gildman from Maintenance!"

Things had progressed quickly from there. After some haphazard information gathering it was determined that everyone in the beam's path had somehow been transformed into an animal of some kind. The beam was traced back to its point of origin and an away team was dispatched to see if they could find any information on what it was or how to reverse it. In the mean time, the affected crewmembers were being gathered up in sickbay for examination and containment. It was quite a menagerie.

~~t~~

The Doctor was frowning over a scan of an energetic spider monkey when the doors opened and said patient clambered onto his head in fear. The Captain turned to see what had caused the sudden panic and couldn't help but take a step back herself.

"S-seven?"

It was a fair guess, even without a tricorder since the lioness stalking unescorted into sickbay had a rather distinctive metal construct around its left eye. The doctor finally managed to pry the frightened monkey off his head and turned to the door.

"Looks like Astrometrics was in the line of fire."

Looking at the slightly gaping jaws revealing gleaming white fangs, Janeway muttered out the side of her mouth.

"How… domesticated… are the effected crew?"

The Doctor blinked, "Uh… well, so far they seem better behaved than wild animals but they don't show any signs of recognition or language comprehension."

As the universe's first Borg Lioness reached the side of the biobed, the captain had a sudden thought,

"Wasn't Celes on duty in Astrometrics this shift?"

Then the Lioness reared up to put both front paws on the bed and dropped a slightly slobbery and extremely terrified but otherwise unharmed brown dormouse in front of them.

The Doctor blinked again then automatically brought the tricorder up to scan the trembling mouse.

"Apparently she was."

~~t~~

~t

AN: you can blame Daxilla's PWP "Puss in Boots" (which is where I stole the chapter title from) for putting the thought of Seven as a lioness in my head. That stray thought somehow crossed with the Tal drabbles and that last scene popped up.

~t


	3. Princess

~t

Disclaimer: not mine

~~t~~

Ow.

When the room stopped spinning, Tal Celes wondered how she came to be staring at the ceiling. Hadn't she just been crossing the Astrometrics lab? Soon the expansive view of grey ceiling was blocked out by a looming Seven of Nine.

"Crewman Celes, are you injured?" Seven asked in a mildly inquiring tone.

Tal sat up quickly, "Oh, I'm fine. Great even." Then she tried to stand and wound up windmilling and grabbing a startled ex-Borg as her right leg gave out.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Tal squeezed her eyes shut in pain, unconsciously squeezing the Borg arm she happened to be holding at the same time.

"You do not appear to be 'fine', nor 'great'" Seven pointed out with an arched ocular implant that Tal completely missed.

Tal finally opened her eyes and, realizing the stranglehold she had on the untouchable blond, quickly released her grip. And subsequently made a wobbling spectacle of herself before her flailing hand encountered a nearby stair railing. The Astrometrics head just watched with muted Borg amusement.

"I do not believe I have ever seen a being trip so successfully without outside influence."

"Ah ha…" Tal laughed embarrassedly, followed by a wince.

Kneeling down, Seven abruptly reached for Tal's injured leg, inspiring another near fall. After an arch look at the restabilized Celes, Seven felt the ankle she was holding before standing just as abruptly.

"I believe it is sprained, you will report to Sickbay."

"Um…" Tal bit her lip uncertainly before she let go of the railing and made an experimental hop towards the door, "right, Sickbay. I'll just…" another hop, which resulted in some frantic arm waving to prevent a reintroduction to the floor, and a glare from Seven.

"That mode of transport is extremely inefficient."

Tal looked uncertain; "Well I don't want to Emergency Transport for a sprained ankle…"

"That would be a waste of the ship's resources." Seven agreed with a small frown.

Tal looked towards the door apprehensively and gave another hop. Seven gave a full body sigh, somehow leaving the distinct impression of rolled eyes.

"Unaccaptable."

The sharp word nearly knocked Tal off balance as she twisted to find Seven mere inches from herself.

"Put your arms around my neck." The Borg ordered.

Tal's eyes widened and darted around the room before turning back to Seven, wondering if _Voyager_ had passed through some new anomaly while she wasn't looking.

"Uh…"

With an exasperated sigh, Seven grabbed Tal's hands and placed them loosely over her shoulders before leaning down to grab Tal's legs behind the knees and stand.

Tal automatically clasped her hands behind the blonde's neck when her balance disappeared and then blinked when she realized the ex-Borg was carrying her.

Bridal style.

"Wha-"

Tal's confused exclamation was cut off when Seven set off down the hall at a brisk pace. The injured Bajorian felt herself blushing as they passed several gawking crewman. Seven didn't even seem to notice as she composedly strode into a turbolift and announced "Sickbay."

Several minutes later, Tal was sitting on a biobed watching the sickbay doors shut behind Seven of Nine; still blushing and thinking that for someone dubbed "Ice Princess", Seven felt surprisingly soft and warm.

~t


	4. Aptitude

~t

Disclaimer: not mine

~~t~~

"Crewman Celes, is something wrong?"

At the stern question Tal Celes turned from staring blankly at her console to focus on the Astrometrics Chief still working on the console behind her.

"Uh, no not really." Tal answered uncertainly, "Why do you ask?"

"You have not entered any data or commands in that console in the last 4.3 minutes." Seven replied, still not looking up from inputting her own data.

"Oh," Tal blushed, "sorry. I guess I just got lost in thought."

Seven finally looked up at the Bajorian

"Indeed."

Her expression made it a question rather than a statement.

Under the blonde's inquisitive stare, Tal made an impulsive decision. "It's just something I overheard in the mess hall." She stopped and bit her lip before looking the taller woman in the eyes. "Lieutenant Torres was saying you were trying to pawn me off on engineering."

Seven's forehead wrinkled in confusion "Pawn you off? I am not familiar with that expression. Explain."

"Um, it means to get rid of something you don't want by giving it to someone else." Tal flushed, "I know I'm kind of a burden, I'm not really good at this stuff and you have to check my work all the time." She smiled but it didn't quite reach her eyes, "I'd understand if wanted me out of Astrometrics."

"Do you not want 'out' of Astrometrics?" Seven asked, perplexed. "I would think you would rather work somewhere more suited to your abilities."

"What abilities?" now Tal sounded confused, "I'm not really suited to anything."

The former Borg turned fully to face Celes, clasped her hands behind her back and assumed a lecturing expression.

"You are not adept at conceptual equations and Astrometrics calculations but very few people are completely useless, they merely need to be assigned to the proper tasks."

"Proper tasks?" Tal echoed in disbelief, "Are you saying you want to send me to Engineering because you think I'd be good at it?"

"Yes." Seven looked confused again "Why else would I suggest transferring you there?"

"To be rid of me and make Astrometrics more efficient…"

The Astrometrics chief raised her ocular implant at that.

"That would make Astrometrics more efficient, but moving an incompetent worker to a different department wouldn't improve _Voyager_'s overall efficiency unless that worker was better suited to the new assignment."

Seven paused and Tal thought she was finished but just when she was opening her mouth to respond the Astrometrics head continued with more than a touch of Borg arrogance.

"If you were truly useless I would prefer you remain assigned to Astrometrics where I can ensure your mistakes are corrected rather than under a less diligent supervisor."

Tal couldn't help wilting a bit. She had said basically the same thing to the Captain, but it still hurt a little to hear it so bluntly from Seven. After the initial sting of the ex-Borg's words passed, the Bajorian digested their content and mustered up her previous question.

"But what makes you think I'd be any better in Engineering?"

Seven cocked her head slightly and gave Tal an irritated look.

"It would be inefficient to list the observations I have made to come to that determination. It should be sufficient that I have considered the problem and come to a probable solution"

"But…" Tal sputtered slightly, irritation creeping into her own response along with a hint of desperation and hope "How do you know?"

"I just do." Seven's tone gave the impression of a small child stamping her foot.

"What like intuition?" Celes blurted in wide eyed surprise.

This earned her a dirty look from the stoic Astrometrics Chief.

"Borg do not… intuit." Seven practically spat the word, before grudgingly conceding, "However, sometimes processes that are utilized with great frequency become subconscious." A pause. "Determining the most efficient use of drones and technology was one of my main tasks in the collective and has become such a process."

Tal was momentarily sidetracked, "Aren't all drones kind of the same?" she asked curiously.

"No." Seven had reverted to a flat tone and expression, "There are physiological differences in the musculature, bone structure and neural structure of different species and individuals that effect their capabilities."

Borg culture, who knew. Tal pondered that a moment in fascination before shaking her head slightly as though to dislodge the thought.

"Okay, but I'd still have the same brain if I transferred to Engineering. I don't see how I'd be more useful there."

Seven sighed in frustration.

"You would have the same brain but I believe it would be more suited to the 'hands on' nature of Engineering than the less tangible applications of Astrometrics. Dealing with the mechanical systems of _Voyager_ provides more immediate and visible responses if you are doing something incorrectly."

"Yeah, like the warp core explodes!" Tal yelped "I don't need that kind of feedback!"

Seven very nearly rolled her eyes. "Lieutenant Torres would likely give you something inconsequential to blow up before allowing you to work on the warp core directly."

The ex-Borg seemed to deflate a bit, "At the moment it is irrelevant since the Lieutenant disregarded the suggestion."

"Oh." Tal deflated a lot and turned to fiddle with her console. While she hadn't really wanted to transfer to engineering, the idea that maybe she might be good at something had started to grow on her. To not feel so inadequate having to fight constantly with intimidating Astrometrics calculations…

Unsure, Seven hesitantly returned to her interrupted work then paused, still facing her console.

"Perhaps I will need to bring the subject to Lieutenant Torres attention again, I did not have time to properly present the idea initially. She may be more inclined to consider the transfer once I've explained the advantages."

Tal looked back at Seven, now immersed in her work. She couldn't decide if she wanted to encourage the transfer idea or not. After a moment she decided Seven seemed content to end the conversation there so Tal opted for silence. But when she returned to her work, more productively this time, it was with a small smile.

~t


End file.
